A book by Swarthmore College sociology professor Dr. Michael L. Mullan takes a look at how the Philadelphia Irish American community grew in the region from its origins in the 1890s.

The Philadelphia Irish: Nation, Culture, and the Rise of a Gaelic Public Sphere, published by Rutgers University Press, looks at the Gaelic public sphere in Philadelphia spurred on by a cultural awakening in native Ireland that was transplanted to our region, creating a robust Irish community.

The Philadelphia Irish embraced cultural and political nationalism exported from Ireland, reveled in Gaelic symbols, and endorsed the Gaelic language, Celtic paramilitarism, Gaelic sport, and a broad ethnic culture.

Mullan reveals how the Irish constructed a plebian “counter” public of Gaelic meaning through various ways of communicating, through the ethnic press, the meeting rooms of Irish societies, circulating pamphlets, oratory, songs, ballads, poems, and conversation.

Irish Americans settled in working-class neighborhoods in an industrial city, resisting the parochialism of the neighborhood in favor of a vibrant, culturally engaged network of Irish rebirth in Philadelphia.

“Mullan is to be commended for his very impressive original study of Irish Philadelphia and the way that the people who migrated there from Ireland drew from their past to build their present. I strongly believe that readers will profit from his insights,” writes Timothy McMahon, author of Grand Opportunity: The Gaelic Revival and Irish Society, 1893-1910.

Dr. Mullan was also the head men’s tennis team coach at Swarthmore College for 40 years. His teams won three N.C.A.A. Division III championships.

He continues to be active on the international veteran’s tennis circuit.

Find out more about The Philadelphia Irish: Nation, Culture, and the Rise of a Gaelic Public Sphere at Rutgers University Press.